Atlas Railcar Will Move Spent Nuclear Fuel Around the U.S.

Nuclear energy crops are on observe to generate greater than 140,000 tonnes of spent nuclear gas (SNF) earlier than 2060. Every 12 months, 2,000 tonnes of radioactive heavy steel be a part of the rising stock of gas faraway from nuclear energy reactors—each working and decommissioned. In the coming a long time, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) might want to transport that materials to future storage amenities.

The quantity of current spent gas—90,000 tonnes—is already outgrowing presently out there storage choices. Storage casks and cooling swimming pools have reached most capability at lots of the 75 crops that host SNF on-site. This materials was by no means supposed to remain at these websites long-term. But, with everlasting storage efforts gridlocked since the early 2000s, a once-temporary repair turned the establishment, leaving the DOE paying US $10.6 billion to cowl utilities’ storage prices.

However, regulators and lawmakers are lastly transferring the needle. Congress just lately directed the DOE to hunt an interim consolidated storage web site to carry SNF till a everlasting answer turns into out there—possible a geologic repository situated between 300 and 1,000 meters underground. Still, this future repository is no less than a decade away.

In the meantime, the DOE is tackling a secondary problem: Modernizing current railcars to accommodate the eventual scale-up of SNF shipments. The result’s Atlas, a multi-car system designed to maneuver about 217 tonnes of SNF and high-level radioactive waste to future storage and disposal locations.

After a decade and $33 million of improvement, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) just lately cleared the 12-axle system to function on all main freight railroads in the United States. Atlas’s principal railcar bears an SNF container held in place by a 7-tonne cradle and two 10-tonne finish stops. Two buffer railcars present protected spacing between the principal railcar and the two locomotives powering the practice, in addition to a rail escort car (REV) caboose that carries armed safety employees for surveillance. The U.S. Navy co-developed the escort car, to exchange its personal getting old REV fleet, which is used to escort naval SNF and categorized ship parts by rail. Atlas employs each cell and satellite tv for pc communications and a mesh radio hyperlink to remain in contact with the cabs.

Engineers completed last testing on Atlas in September 2023 with a 2,700-kilometer journey from Colorado to Idaho. U.S. Department of Energy

Historically, each vehicles and trains have transferred 1000’s of shipments of irradiated nuclear gas between DOE analysis websites, utility-owned reactors, and New Mexico’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the nation’s solely deep geologic repository for weapons-generated waste. While vehicles’ authorized weight restrict is 36 tonnes, rail can effectively deal with high-capacity SNF casks and contaminated soil from cleanup websites in a single cargo. Atlas’s superior real-time monitoring system builds on these capabilities.

Atlas comes as nuclear stays a key contributor of unpolluted power in the U.S., surpassing wind and photo voltaic to generate 18.6 % of the nation’s electrical energy final 12 months—sufficient for over 70 million houses. Despite their excessive capability, nuclear reactors produce a comparatively low quantity of waste. Annual SNF outputs translate to lower than half of an Olympic pool.

After gas is spent inside a reactor, plant operators immerse gas assemblies in 40-foot concrete swimming pools lined with metal to isolate radiation. Once it’s cooled for no less than 5 years, SNF strikes to metal canisters shielded by an outer layer of concrete, metal, or each. These dry casks can keep on-site for 40 years.

Spent nuclear gas is saved throughout the United States, with a lot of it 1000’s of kilometers away from current and future storage websites.U.S. Government Accountability Office

In the Nineteen Eighties, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act mandated the DOE to begin completely disposing of SNF in an underground repository at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. However, social and political opposition in the end quashed the hotly contested challenge. The regulatory complexity of a everlasting storage answer stays a vital barrier in SNF administration, notably amid uncertainty about the security of long-term dry storage. As the DOE is in the early levels of siting a federal interim facility, SNF will possible stay at crops till the late 2030s.

The DOE says Atlas’s improvement spanned 10 years as a consequence of the complexity of AAR’s S-2043, the strictest commonplace for freight railcars transporting SNF and high-level radioactive waste in North America. Atlas has a set of sensors monitoring 11 efficiency parameters required by S-2043, similar to bearing circumstances, velocity, rocking, and braking. The built-in safety and security monitoring system options mechanisms to stop derailments from tools failure or degradation.

The DOE initially envisioned Atlas as an eight-axle railcar. During the conceptual design section, pc modeling indicated the practice’s efficiency may not meet all S-2043 necessities. Around this time, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensed a brand new 190-tonne cask, which is simply too heavy for axle loadings on a smaller railcar. These circumstances impressed a 12-axle redesign.

The Atlas railcars are separated from the locomotives and escort railcar by empty buffer automobiles to take care of a protected distance from the spent nuclear gas.U.S. Department of Energy

The railcars and locomotives accomplished a roughly 2,700-kilometer (1,680-mile) demonstration to make sure on-track compatibility and security. Traveling easily from Colorado to Idaho, the check simulated the heaviest NRC-certified cask with metal dummy weights totaling virtually 220 tonnes (480,000 kilos), accompanied by a REV, buffer automobiles, and Union Pacific Railroad locomotives.

Heavier SNF containers demand the dozen axles that Atlas supplies, however eight axles can transfer comparatively lighter packages of no less than 72 tonnes extra effectively. After Atlas transitioned to a 12-axle railcar, the DOE initiated an eight-axle challenge for smaller payloads. The AAR authorized the design in 2021, and commenced prototype fabrication this 12 months.

Fortis, comprising the similar payload attachment system, monitoring system, REV, and buffer automobiles, is predicted to be accomplished in the late 2020s. “Both railcars will provide the DOE with flexibility to use the right rail equipment for the job,” a DOE spokesperson informed IEEE Spectrum.